In Your Face - Again

July 1, 1999|By CHRIS VOGNAR The Dallas Morning News

During the blazing-hot summer of 1977, fear and chaos engulfed New York City as a serial killer stalked the streets. Before David Berkowitz, aka Son of Sam, was finally caught, he generated a palpable sense of panic made worse by record high temperatures.

That was the Summer of Sam, according to director Spike Lee, whose latest film has already given rise to controversy among those who don't realize what Lee has been quick to explain: Summer of Sam is not about Berkowitz, nor his victims. It's about what happens when fear and anger take over and a scapegoat is needed. It's about what the wrong people do when they get scared, and it's about a summer that New Yorkers will be hard-pressed to forget.

Lee chuckles when asked what makes it a particularly New York story. "It was one of the hottest summers on record, and you had the blackout and all the looting. It was Reggie Jackson's first year with the Yankees, and he hit the three home runs in Game 6 [of the World Series] against the Dodgers. It was the summer of punk and disco, and CBGB's and Studio 54 and Plato's Retreat. It was a crazy summer, and that's the story I'm telling."

While Summer of Sam, which opens Friday, shows once again that Lee knows his Big Apple, it also shows that he's fascinated with what makes human beings tick. Like other notable filmmakers, he can turn a neighborhood or a city into a crucible of joy and pain. Though this is his first film that doesn't pertain directly to what we've come to regard as "black issues" ("Most of the characters are Italian-American; this is just the story I want to tell"), there's never any doubt that it's a Spike Lee Joint.

His in-your-face style and choices of subject matters -- dirty laundry on black campuses (School Daze), interracial relationships and the scourge of crack (Jungle Fever, Clockers), hot-button black leaders (Malcolm X) -- have often obscured the artistry that goes into his work. He feels that moviegoers and critics alike too often put the sizzle before the steak.

"I don't know if it's necessarily controversy," he says. "But sometimes people and reviewers can't see what's up on the screen. They're thinking too much about what they read that I said ... They don't like the persona of Spike Lee, or who they think I am -- which has absolutely nothing to do with the movie that they're paid to review."

In the end, he says, such distractions hurt everyone involved.

"It turns out being a disservice to readers and to the people behind the camera who work very hard to do their very best," he says. "It used to make me mad, but I'm not getting an ulcer. There are things that you just cannot control. I've only learned that with time."

Time has seen a number of different Spike Lees. There was the no-budget do-it-yourselfer of She's Gotta Have It, showing off a sense of independence that remains a crucial part of his work. There was the genius behind Do the Right Thing, regarded by some as one of the best films of its era. There was the sweetness of Crooklyn, and the fund-raising panache behind Malcolm X.

Through it all, he has helped launch several careers -- Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, John Turturro, Summer co-writer and frequent bit player (and Sopranos star) Michael Imperioli, just to name a few -- and dedicated himself to crafting a warts-and-all picture of black America.

His musical collaborations are also storied. His jazz scorers include dad Bill Lee and trumpet player Terence Blanchard, who did the music for Summer of Sam. The hoops drama He Got Game featured a rap soundtrack from Public Enemy. Some complain about his excessive use of music, but it's impossible to imagine a Lee film without persistent melodies to accompany the images.

But after all the seeds he has planted, he's dismayed that the film industry continues to slog behind with a dearth of black stories and roles.

"It depends on what the subject matter is," he says. "Black people acting a fool, that's all right [with the studios]. If it's dramatic, you'll get the film made but not with a lot of money."

Funding is still a problem for Lee, although he hasn't had the difficulties he faced during the making of Malcolm X. For that film, he needed to raise finishing funds from black luminaries such as Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan. Today, he gives props to Disney head Joe Roth for getting behind Summer of Sam and Lee's last film, He Got Game. "I got no complaints there," he says.